Punch (25.1853)

IT

PREFACE.

not much of a poet,” said Mr. Cobden, “but if my Friend, Bright, will help me, I will gladly so redeem my j
Blunder.5"'

The fourth. “A poor Foreigner/’ whispered the over-kindly Lady, but Mr. Punch sternly buttoned
his pockets. “ The Owner will behave with common honesty until further notice.” A gentleman in a Spanish
costume looked surprised at such a desire, and said that he did not care whether he did or did not redeem
his Bonds.

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The fifth was called, and a light step approached, and somebody was heard humming a melody of Ton j.
Moore’s. “ The Owner,” said Mr. Punch, “ will carry three times through the chamber something to help
you, Madam, to hear your own voice better.” Lord John Russell smiled, and said that he hoped his Reform
Bill would so redeem his Promise.

And the Dream—it is dream fashion—grew confused, but Mr. Punch thinks there was a scramble for
the rest of the things, and that everybody snatched what he could. Mr. Gladstone, seizing, with tax-gatherer’s
gripe, what he thought was a work on Theology, got “ The Whole Duty—off Paper.” Emperor Louis Napoleon
departed very happy with a Cradle. Lord Palmerston went out, angry with a Scotch Compass, which though
only just out of the Trinity House, had an abominable bias to N.E. Pope Pius ran about most uncomfortably,
apprehending the loss of a French Watch and Guard, to go without which would, His Holiness said, be his ruin.
Mr. Disraeli made several vain grabs at a portfolio, which Britannia, laughing good-natured scorn, refused to
let him have; and when the Earl op Derby tried for the same thing, she presented him with a Racing Game,
as more suitable to his capabilities. Several Aldermen, who had presented specimens of Mendacity, received
packets of tickets, inscribed Mendicity, to everybody’s delight, and there was a cheer for a bold Bishop, who had
put down a Carriage and was content to take up a little Gig. Another Bishop—he had a Fulham cut—found his
mitre, but some one, in unseemly satire, had surmounted it with a golden and most vivacious Weathercock.

“ And what would you put down, dear Mr. Punch,” said the Lady of the Revel, “ if we began again ?”

“ This, dear Lady,” said Mr. Punch, gracefully bending, and proffering an object at which the eyes of >
Britannia sparkled like diamonds, “ this—which—as your game is over, I will pray Amu to keep in pledge
that, six months hence, I will present you Avith its still richer successor.”

And Britannia—the smile at her heart reflected in her face—accepted